Everything is spawning

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Paul, this is a GREAT picture!

Alfred

No. that was when my seahorses spawned.

 

[Paul B]

It seems my mandarins are ready to spawn again. They just spawned maybe 7 weeks ago but she is again very fat. I most likely won't be here for the event as I was lucky last time. I am sure my baby brine shrimp feeder gets her into breeding condition faster than the numerous pods along. But if they spawn again and I am near by, I will try to get another picture. Maybe even collect some eggs. They are good for breakfast, but I need really tiny bacon to go with them.
Fron the last spawning

 

[Charley]

Paul, I hear that the salinity of the NSW around Long Island is lower than ASW perhaps creating some difficulties. Seems like this is not an issue for you or simply may not be true?

 

[Paul B]

No, the salinity here is low, sometimes very low so I add a little ASW to bring it up when I use NSW.

 

[jackson6745]

I had no idea that seahorses get "red rockets" LMAO. That's a great shot.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

I had no idea that seahorses get "red rockets" LMAO. That's a great shot.

:lol2:

 

[Paul B]

It seems that a few more fish are spawning. Almost all my fish are spawning except the copperband (I wish) and some watchman gobies that don'r have a mate.
I have a school of 5 threadfin cardinals and I think at least one is a female. She grew a lot larger than the other four and she has eggs. There is another pair of cardinals but I don't know what they are called but it also looks like one of them has eggs. The fireclowns are still spawning as are the mandarins and I hope the clown gobies spawn but so far it doesn't look like anything is happening except they are dancing for each other. One of them has only been in the tank for a week so she (he) needs a little time to get settled. I never say clown gobies spawn so I will be excited if they do.
This is the first time since this tank was set up that so many fish are spawning or seem to be spawning and also the first time the nitrates have been so high, around 40.
It is also the first time that all the SPS, LPS, leathers and gorgonians are living together peacefully. Usually one type does great but the others wilt.
I really don't know what is going on but everything looks really good.
That doesn't surprise me but the fact that everything is getting along is amazing.

The threadfins were young here.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

MeanGreenEyes, I see you have a different avitar over here. The "Secret" with mandarins is food and lots of it. A very clean tank won't do it. Mandarins want to eat a pod about every 10 seconds and they don't rest until the lights go off. I don't know how many pods that is but it is a big number. Unfortunately, all of those pods with all of their food may cause water problems that also must be taken care of.
The way to take care of that is with the right types of bacteria. The kind you can collect near your home in Brooklyn. So my secret is adding bacteria from the sea or better yet, from the Long Island Sound. A few times a year I collect a handful of mud from a bay. My boat is in Port Washington and I am there all the time but any bay will do. I take the mud and put it in a dish and lay it in my tank and leave it there for a week. Then I remove it and throw it out. I just want the pods and bacteria. I shoot a little of the mud in the tank just for the heck of it.
If you are the type of person that quarantines everything this method will not work because quarantining this stuff will kill the beneficial bacteria. I would imagine if you are worried about paracites, you could keep this stuff airated for a month, then put it in.

I did invent a baby brine feeder that you can make for about a buck but you would never be able to keep a pair of mandarins on just baby brine shrimp, you would have to hatch them a couple of times a day. Mandarins laugh at a thousand shrimp.
In my reef I have a lot of small fish that rely on pods and baby brine and I also have too many fish, 28 of them in a 100 gallon tank. That is not great for water quality but I think nitrates are overrated as my SPS corals are growing all over the place and they are an indication of water quality. So for a short answer to your question about the secret, I say it is bacteria and minute life from the ocean.
Many times during the summer I go out collecting in Port Washington to a tide pool. I go with my boat and sometimes take people that want to collect. There is an article on here someplace about it. This summer if you want to come, you are welcome.
I collect amphipods which re produce all year in my tank along with grass shrimp and bacteria.
My methods scare people but that is because you can't just take one thing I do like add mud and throw that in any tank. The tank and especially the fish must be in spawning condition, not just alive and swimming. Spawning fish don't hardly ever get sick, even paracites.
Fish live in the sea which is a soup of diseases and their immune system works great but only if they are in spawning condition. I personally don't have to quarantine and have not had a hospital tank since the late 70s. Don't need one. I have found after decades of experimenting and diving that the greatest boon to fish health is live food. 2nd best is whole food, not shrimp tails or scallop. Clams, live black worms and live baby brine shrimp along with wild amphipods will do it. If I could not get live worms, I would not be in this hobby, that is how strong I feel about them and I also feel the lack of them is what generates all of the disease and problem threads.
MeanGreenEyes, you asked. :pimp:

Awesome stuff Paul! Where do you buy your worms and how do you go about feeding them... just drop them in live or do you cut them up first?

Can you explain more on the shrimp feeder? How you made it and how you use it? Are you enriching the shrimp before feeding? I'm guessing it's the circular thing the Mandarin is laying on in the pic above?

 

[Paul B]

There is a long thread on here someplace about my tank but I can't find it.
I buy the worms at either Fish Town in Flushing, Pet Barn in Franklin Square or a few other places. You feed them with a baster as they die in less than a minute.
I wil look for the thread on the shrimp feeder.

OK I found the thread of my tank, everything should be on there

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/93125-tank-birthday-40-years.html

And this is about the feeder.
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/124355-they-all-love-feeder.html

 

[Paul B]

Now these threadfin cardinals are spawning.

I have one of these shrimp/gobi, pairs and I recently got a much smaller gobi. The new one is about half the size of the existing one and I was not even going to add her to my tank as I thought she may get eaten. I didn't see her in a couple of weeks but not I see her hanging out with the big one and hopefully when she ages, they will also spawn.

 

[robby1]

Great job!
I also use natural water here in the South of FRANCE. Spawning happens mainly right after water changes, for fish and also snails, tube worms, starfish. I have the feeling you get a lot by using it, even with the danger of bringing a bacteria in. As you say, a healthy fish will cope with it. I have to consider about using mud the way you do, but I don't think it is as full of life here as it is by your spot. We have some brine shrimps spots, and some copepods spots within chaetomorpha algea. Now I also have reproducing in my tank and I see baby fish sometimes when I observe at night. It is mainly damsel fish chrysiptera hemicyanea.

Here the density is very high so I have to mix it with tap water. Now I don't mesure anymore, I know it is 1 volume tap for 5 sea. But the water is Crystal clear and you get always some like 30 to 60 feet visibility. I do take it 3 feet deep to avoid o?l and gazoline at the surface.

 

[Paul B]

Robb1 thanks for posting, I know nothing about the water in France but I have been to Europe twice. I just didn't look at the mud. Our water here in New York is weak and I have to add salt to it, just the opposite of you. I add mud a few times a year as I am a boater and spend a lot of time in tide pools and muddy marina's.
I think the mud is one of the secrets to this but I have no real idea.

 

[robby1]

Yeah I leave at the mediterranean sea. It is a closed sea like the red sea, that is why density is high. We also have almost no tide effect, just 10 to 30 cm variation. But I get some animals in pools me too, especially shrimps, in rocky places. I also have a little boat.
As for water quality, I see from above by plane (I am a pilot) that water is very sandy along Long Island but clear in the bays when not windy. You also get the influence of the Hudson river. And this is good: where I live the spot to get copepods, even syngnathes and others is by the delta of the river. Water is green, low in density but the algeas are developping much better there, and being food for larvaes.